Have you heard about ZocDoc? The company launched at TechCrunch in 2007. Their goal – to let people find and book appointments with doctors, dentists and other health professionals online.
The company has raised $50 million in a new round with DST. The company was valued at $700 million or more in this round, we’ve heard from various sources. ZocDoc won’t comment, though, on valuation.
They started off with just a few dentists and 5,000 appointment slots. It took them two years to get to a million available appointments. They now have 5 million over the next 90 days, up from 3 million in February. They’ve also more than doubled the number of employees in the last six months, to 150.
Doctors pay $250 per month to be part of ZocDoc. I’ve tried every way possible to get to a good revenue estimate for the company. It’s simple math once you know the number of doctors in the system, but they won’t disclose the number of average open appointments per doctor, or otherwise reveal revenue.
Some interesting things about the company –
– They were mentioned by the Wall Street Journal in 2007 after launching at our event as part of an article talking about how there was a tech bubble at the time. Of course, valuations from 2007 look downright cute in today’s world.
– The company has an atrocious, ridiculous non-logo. They don’t seem to mind it at all. Apparently it hasn’t slowed down growth.
– ZocDoc wanted to launch as Doctors.com, but whoever owned it wanted $4 million for the domain name, says CEO Cyrus Massoumi. So they bought zocdoc.com for $6 instead.
– DST is on a tear. Forget previous investments in Facebook, Groupon and Zynga. Just in the last several months they’ve invested in Twitter, Airbnb, Spotify, and now ZocDoc.
– There are obvious comparisons to be made between ZocDoc and OpenTable. One interesting point brought up by a fan of the company is that the health care industry is far larger than the restaurant industry. ZocDoc could be a big winner.
Disclosure: I’m not an investor in ZocDoc, but I’ve asked to invest. Either way, I’m a fan. Bad logo and all.